Improved apparatus for casting fuses



UNITED STATES PATENTV OFFICE.

GEORGFJVRIGHT, OF VASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CASTING FUSES.

- Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,352, dated April 28, 1863.

.To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE WRIGHT, of Vashington, in the District of Columbia, have invented a new and useful Machine for Molding Bormann Fuses; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, prepared with a View to the obtaining of Letters Patent therefor.

The accompanying drawings form a part of this speciiication.

Figure lis a side view of the machine when in an open condition to allow the removal of parts which inclose and mold the periphery of the fuse. Fig. 2 is a side view of the machine when in a closed condition to allow the pouring of the metal and the complete shaping of the fuse. The machine must be allowed to remain in this condition until the melted metal has cooled so as to maintain its shape. Fig. 3 is a front vieW- of the machine when in an open condition corresponding to Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a top view of a portion of the machine. Fig. 5 is a section of a portion on the line S S in Figs. 4 and l. Fig. Gis a face view of the Bormann fuse complete. Fig. 7 is a side or edge View of the same. Fig. 8 is a rear View of the same. Fig. 9 is a section of the same on the lineT Tin Figs. 6 and 8. Fig., l0 is a section on the line U U in the same figures. Fig. Il is a rear view of the body or chief portion of the fuse in the condition in which it is dropped from the parts in which it is removed from my machine. This figure shows also, in outline, the parts in which it is so removed, and which parts mold the edge or periphery of the fuse. Fig. l2 is a rear view of the curved piece which forms a secondary portion of the fuse. This may be cast at the same time as the main part by the use of my machine; but it is cast in a different portion of my machine from. the main part, into which it is to be tted by a subsequent operation.

The tints employed serve to distinguish the different parts, and are not intended to indicate materials necessary or proper to be employed. I can employ any suitable materials, but prefer iron for all the parts.

Similar letters of reference denote like parts in all the iigures.

The Bormann fuse is a species of time-fuse adapted to ignite from the fiame of the cartridge, and adapted for use on all varieties of explosive, projectiles, but especially valuable for round shells. Its general construction and use are too well known to require elucidation; but it is made in several different forms. I have represented in the above gures the form now the most approved in the United States service, and which my machine as represented is adapted to produce.

The material of the Bormann fuse is au al loy of tin and lead, and the material is suitable for molding in metallic molds. This mode of producing the parts has long been practiced, but the manufacture by such means has been tedious, and has required much skilled labor to produce a small number of fuses. Y

My invention produces the parts rapidly and requires but little labor. The labor re quired may be readily and successfully performed by boys of ordinary intelligence. Two boys-one to operate the machine and the other to pour the metalcan mold the parts as above represented of four hundred fuses in a day of ten hours. Previous to my invention the best apparatus known for this purpose required skillful men and could not be operated by such boys at all, and two experienced men produced in a day of ten hours only about one hundred and fifty fuses. These are the results of actual working by both the former means and by my machines, for many weeks in the preparation of these fuses for service, averaged according to the best of my judgment.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation by the aid of the drawings, and of the letters of reference marked thereon.

A is a bed of iron, adapted to be bolted upon a bench, B. Stout posts C C are secured to A, the collars and nuts as represented so serv'- ing to form a rigid union. The central part of each post C is rectangular, as indicated by c. The remainder is cylindrical and adapted to be loosely encircled with the spiral springs D, as represented, and `to guide the sliding cross-heads E and F, which are tted on C C, and areconstantly acted on by the springs D D, the cross-heads E and F being urged to gether by the tension of these springs. These cross-heads E andF carry dies or molds,which I will distinguish as cope and noweh the upper mold or cope, which is carried on the cross head E, being designated by c, and the lower mold or nowel, which is carried on the cross-head F, being designated by f. Two cams, G G, are mounted on suitable ceuters on the parts e c, as represented, so as to be turned by the levers g g, each of which is rigidly attached to a cam, G, and also tothe handle H, so that the handle moves both cams G G alike. These cams, as will be readily understood, separate the slides E and F and open the mold on raising the handle H, and allow the slides E and F to approach each other, and consequently to close the mold under the influence of the spiral springs D as the handle H is depressed. i

I is a crosspiece, rigidly iixed on the upper ends of the posts C C by the nuts represented.

J is a pin inserted in the cope ein such manner that it may be driven down by a slight blow, and will stop in the right position to form the hole in the fuse, and may be elevated by a blow or slight force in the reverse direction applied under the hookj, so as to release itself from all connection with the fuse before the handle H is elevated. The parts e and f thus operated and arranged shape the front and rear 'faces of the main part of the fuse, which I term the fuse proper. The form ofthese faces or the depth and character of the features on these surfaces of the fuse may be varied at pleasure; but I have represented the form which is required to allow all the characteristics of the fuse now in the United States service.

I may remark here that the small disk l? (see Fig. 10) which covers the central cavity in the fuse is not produced by my machine, but must, as heretofore, be produced by other means. The filling and iinishing of the 'fuses must also be done by other means t-han my machine.

K K are cheeks matched accurately together by the aid of dowels, and adapted to properly mold the periphery of the fuses. These cheeks are fitted in grooves in the rectangular parts c c, and may be withdrawn by the aid of wooden handles K K and again readily replaced with facility. The opening of these handles, and consequently of the cheeks K K, is performed without possible difficulty after the cheeks have been withdrawn from the machine, and thus the fuse is released fully and finally from all connection with any part of the mold without any danger of distortion.

The curved channel in the fuse requires a curved piece to cover it, one curved piece for each fuse. I cast this in the curved channel L in the top of the cross-piece I, or in the top of a piece mounted thereon, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The curved channel L is of the full depth required for the piece to be molded, and is covered by the turning-plate M, which is mounted on the pin m and provided with a sharp-edged notch, M, through which the melted metal is poured. By the moving of M, by means of the wooden handle M2, after the metal has chilled, the sprue or riser is cut off and the upper surface of the curved piece made plane. My means of removing the piece from its mold are shown in Figs. 3,4,and 5. These means of removal are as follows: Three or more holes in the base of groove L receive three pins, n a a, which are attached to an extended plate or head on a larger pin or slide, N, which extends downward through the lower face of the cross-piece I, and stands in such position that it is touched and elevated at each movement of the handle H to its highest position. The lower end of this pin Nreceives a nut or head, N, and a spiral spring, O, stands encircling N between I and N and constantly pressing it downward.

The operation ofthe entire machine will now be readily understood. rlhe handle H is lowered to allow the cope c and the nowel f to assume their proper positions within the cheeks K K, and the pin J is driven down to its full extent. rIhe handle M2 is now drawn forward and melted metal poured into the notch M and the hole e until both molds are full. The handle M2 is now pushed back till it stands in the position shown in Fig. 4t. The pin J is now raised until it is out of the newly-molded fuse. rlhe handle H is now raised toits highest position, and this latter operation moves the nowel f forcibly and smoothly downward, and the cope c equally eii'ectually upward, so that both are detached and removed entirely from the shaped (but still not thoroughly hard) fuse, while the latter is iirmly and quietly held in the cheeks K K. These cheeks and their contents are now withdrawn by the handles K K', and the fuse appears as in Fig. 11.

On separating the cheeks in the proper position on the pile of work the new fuse is deposited gently on its companions, and the cheeks being again applied togetherandshoved into the grooves in the machine, the round of operations is repeated, and my pins u a a will at each elevation of the cope c be lifted by the contact of the latter with the base of the pin N and the yielding ofthe spring O, so as to protrude themselves upward through the base of the curved mold L, and will throw out the molded piece, allowing it to slide off through a spout, (not represented,) and will at each depression of the cope be depressed by gravity and by the spring O, so as to be of no effect while the curved piece is being molded.

The drawings, as a matter of convenient representation, show the post-s C C and the pin or slide N as upright and the curved groove or mold L and the cheeks K K and dies or cope and nowel c f as horizontal. My machine may be worked in such position, and many others,with success; but I prefer to make the bench B horizontal and to give all the other parts the inclination incident thereto, and which will be readily understood from the from and relation of the parts as represented.

Some of the advantages due to different features may be separately enumerated, as follows: First, by my removing the face molds or cope and nowel e and f from the fuse while the lat-l ter is held inthe slides or cheeks K K, I avoid all the loss of time and all the danger of distortion attendingthe ordinary method ormeans of operating molds for this purpose; second, by my arrangement of the cams G G, parts ef and their connections7 parts K K, and means of guiding and operating the whole, I am enabled to Work very rapidly and certainly with a necessity for but little skill or strength and with a very light and cheap machine; third, by my means of molding and removing asecondary part in the same machine with the main part, and of removing` or detaching the secondary part from its mold by the motion of the parte transmitted to the pins an n' or their equivalents, I am enabled to make both the main and the secondary part at the same operation, and consequently exactly corresponding in number and with the expenditure of but little more labor and no more time than Would be required to mold one part alone.

Having now fully described what l claim as new in the molding of Bormann fuses, What I desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. Removing the cope e and nowelf from the fuse while the latter is irmly held and supported by the cheeks K K or their equivalents, for the purpose herein set forth.

2. The arrangement of the cams G G, parts a and f and K K, and the .means of guiding the same, substantially as and for th purpose herein set forth.

3. Molding and removing a secondary part in the same machine with the main part, substantially in the manner and with the advan tage herein set i'orth.

GEO. WRIGHT.

Titnessesz H. C. ELLIOTT, J. A. HOELROY. 

